CMO Thoughtspot, Scott Holden: Tactics, Strategy, and Downhill Skiing

ThoughtSpot CMO Scott Holden spent eight years at Salesforce, putting in the time every year behind the scenes at Dreamforce watching the company reach 20,000 employees. And he probably could have thrown his hat into the ring to be CMO there — but he didn’t want that. Instead, he says, “I had the hunger to go back and build something” with a strong mission and vision, so he left for a much, much smaller company: The business intelligence company ThoughtSpot, where he has worked since 2015. 

In this episode, Scott and Joubin discuss the rise of “vulnerability is strength”; the dangers of living someone else’s truth and not listening to your instincts; the pressure of being at the top of a mountain; why he decided to move from Salesforce to ThoughtSpot; why enterprise marketing is about more than the story; and why competing companies haven’t been able to poach him away.

In this episode, we cover:

• Scott’s lifelong reputation of being graceful under pressure (04:45)
• Opportunity cost and trusting your gut (10:29)
• Which is harder to excel at: Downhill skiing or golf? (15:25)
• The “forcing function” of the Dreamforce deadline and Marc Benioff’s relentless ambition (22:41)
• Moving from a 20,000 person company to a 40-person one (28:44)
• Why Scott did not get the CMO title at ThoughtSpot right away, and the $0 quarter (35:10)
• Leading through a pandemic while also restructuring the company (40:36)
• Superheroes, proving your worth, and amazing women (48:00)

Links:

• Connect with Scott
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: scott@thoughtspot.com
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm